From Publishers Weekly
Clarke, a British journalist working in Paris, offers fans of his international roman à clef bestseller A Year in the Merde a novel-sequel that mixes adolescent humor with occasionally astute observations about an expatriate's life in France-with happy results. Clarke's alter-ego Paul West, a 27-year-old Englishman and culinary school graduate turned entrepreneur, opens a tearoom in Paris. After "accidentally screwing someone else," Paul must prove himself to Alexa, the woman he loves, and many shenanigans ensue. A chef with the Breton name of Yann Kerbolloc'h and the French seaside resort town of Ars are sources of great mirth, as are bum jokes, see-through nighties, the many names for male genitalia (dongler, todger, zizi, pair of walnuts and a chipolata, and "what I hoped was an adequate bump in my surfer shorts," to name a few). Clarke doesn't gloss over the racial tensions in Paris, and an occasional editorial voice can be heard, as when the protagonist laments "the dire state" of Britain's railways. On Nutella, he says, "Teenagers and jobless graduates turn to it with a spoon in times of stress." This quick summer read is a rollicking, self-mocking, and brazenly uncouth meal of bonbons coton.
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Booklist
Clarke continues his gentle spoofing of Peter Mayle's Provence memoirs. Paul West, Clarke's alter ego, the Englishman who came to Paris in A Year in the Merde (2005), is now trying to bring to fruition his dream of opening a chain of tea cafes. But first he must make it through a weekend in the country with his new girlfriend's family. This memoir is full of comic misadventure and misunderstanding (Paul briefly thinks his girlfriend's nephew's name is Semen), but underlying it is a deep affection for France and its people. Along the way, though, there is plenty of hilarity. An equal-opportunity satirist, Clarke lampoons French arrogance, British pomposity, and the naivete of all Francophiles with equal gusto. Like Mayle, though, he writes not to condemn the French but to celebrate them. Both Merde titles have been number-one best-sellers in the U.K. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
